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The Federal Reserve's bond-buying has been like a nitrous boost for the high-performance vehicle that is emerging markets. Now it's time for investors to start thinking about what happens when the juice runs out.

When the Federal Open Market Committee minutes were released on Jan. 3, the Fed discussed the end of quantitative easing—and spooked the market. In the ensuing selloff, emerging-market investors got a preview of what might happen when the day comes for the Fed's bond-buying to end.

A lot has to go right for that to happen, of course. Economic growth in the U.S. will have to remain above 2%, while the unemployment rate continues ticking down toward the Fed's implied 6% target. And of course, the markets have to make it through the debt-ceiling déjà vu without too much disruption.

The end of quantitative easing will represent a seismic shift that will force investors to reconsider investments that have seemed like no-brainers since the end of the financial crisis—including the outperformance of emerging markets. "This is big," says Sebastien Galy, a currency strategist at Societe Generale, in New York. "It won't be such a clear bet that you should be in emerging markets."

That's because one of the big side-effects of the Fed's bond-buying has been to push investors into developing-market stocks and bonds. More than $65 billion went into emerging-market stocks since the Fed announced its third round of bond buying on Sept. 13. Those inflows are likely to dry up once the Fed's bond-buying stops—and could cause emerging markets to sell off.

BUT IT'S NOT ALL BAD NEWS, says Jeff Shen, head of Asia-Pacific and emerging markets in BlackRock's Scientific Active Equity group. The end of quantitative easing would mean that the Fed sees sustainable economic growth in the U.S.—and globally. But it will also force investors to be more selective because individual countries and their stocks will move based more on fundamentals, rather than the rush of easy money. "In an environment where money comes in easily, low quality rises as fast as high quality," Shen says. "But less money means it would be crucial to differentiate between winners and losers."

Still, don't lose too much sleep, says Steve Malin, director of research at Wealthstream Advisors and a former New York Fed employee. The minutes were the Fed's way of saying it sees a real possibility that the U.S. economy could be strong enough this year not to need the QE boost, he says. It doesn't mean that the Fed will be acting anytime soon. And when the Fed does act, it will communicate well ahead of time that a big change is coming. "They're putting it on the calendar for discussion," Malin says. Stay tuned.